


Discussion on Gateau

by SinnohRemakes (OKFandom)



Series: Gateau Gang Gest [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Gen, since this whole thing is based off of SinnohRemakes' very first Pokemon game lmao, the tags might say Barry & Dawn but their names are Cole & Precia in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-16 17:52:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11257905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OKFandom/pseuds/SinnohRemakes
Summary: A trio of young trainers explore an abandoned mansion and contemplate a Sinnoh delicacy.





	Discussion on Gateau

**Author's Note:**

> me: “All I wanted was a shitty slice of life about a slice of gateau, _what did you do_ ”  
> docs: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Precia had mentioned it in passing that morning – to go exploring the Old Chateau together – and neither of her fellow trainers could object. Or, at least, they weren’t given the opportunity to do so.

It was the Chansey at the PokéCenter that had reminded her – of Cheryl, specifically, but Eterna Forest by extension, and the Old Chateau by association. If it hadn’t been for the lull in conversation amongst the young trio, the suggestion might’ve gone unheeded. Instead, Cole had zeroed in the second he heard the word “explore”, and Lucas didn’t have the power to outvote his more adventurous friends.

So now, here they were. Nine in the morning found the three friends standing in Eterna Forest, just outside the gates of the Old Chateau. Cole and Precia barely paused long enough to chop down the obnoxious knee-high brambles before making a beeline towards the abandoned building, the overgrown lawn not even hindering their advance. Lucas, ever the voice of reason for the group, stayed back towards the fence at first. A sudden change of heart, though (and maybe, just _maybe_ the chill of a ghost Pokémon lurking nearby), sent him scurrying to join his friends.

The mansion was just as deserted as it was the first time, air stagnant as the building laid untouched. Nothing new seemed broken, at the very least. Cole was quick to dart in, Precia hot on his heels. The former eyed the spacious foyer with awe as Lucas shuffled nervously behind them. Faint plumes of dust filled the air with each step as Cole broke further away from the group, running up to the imposing statue right across from the entrance.

“Ooh, who’s _this_ guy?” The excitable boy asked, laughing as he inspected the odd art piece. He went to touch the surface, only to make a face as his hand made contact with the light layer of grime covering it. “Eww…”

Lucas coughed, partially from the musty air, partially to get Precia’s attention. “You’ve, uh, been here before, right? Anything we should know about the place, or…?”

“Um…” Precia took a moment to collect her words before pointing past Cole, who was attempting to mimic the statue’s face. “The dining…hall, thing, it’s right that way. One of the rooms upstairs has an old painting, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. It looked like a Pokémon? There’s a TV, too, but it doesn’t work…and some books.”

“Oh? That sounds worth checking out,” Lucas perked up in curiosity. Perhaps the painting depicted a rare Pokémon? “Hey, Cole, were you listeni–?”

He’d spoken too late. The other boy had already rushed off into the dining area, though his voice carried back to them. “You two better not find any ghosts without me! It’s a ¥10 million fine if you do!!”

“…w-well, then,” Lucas stammered. Precia made a shooing motion with her hands, herding him towards the stairs. “I’ll, uh, yeah. Upstairs?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna check out the other wings.” That _had_ been part of her plan in the first place, but distractions, distractions…she’d gotten so wrapped up looking for a Haunter on her last visit, she’d run out of time to fully explore. From the apprehensive look on Lucas’ face, though, she was starting to wonder if she’d be able to manage it today, either. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“What? Uh, yeah! Of course!” Lucas was quick to reassure her, albeit unconvincingly. Precia decided not to comment on it as she split off, making her way over to the east wing. He continued on to the second-floor hallway, muttering to himself. “Just a painting, right? Shouldn’t be so bad…”

-

The kitchen was empty, much to Cole’s disappointment. Granted, he wasn’t _exactly_ expecting to find _food_ or anything, but at least something more than a bunch of empty plates and broken appliances. A sign hanging on the wall seemed to be dictating a list of something or another, but most of it was too faded to read. Of what was visible, he could make out the words ‘mix’ and ‘berries’ and…“Gat-too?” He rolled the word around on his tongue a few times, but it didn’t ring any bells. Maybe it was a different language?

Deciding to look it up later, and sparing a last glance inside the fridges (just in case!), Cole sprinted to the other side of the hall. The moldy tablecloth fluttered as he ran by, completely oblivious to the semi-transparent old man seated at the table. Dulled, slate-blue eyes followed the trainer as he nudged at the boxes sitting on the west end of the hall.

Deciding against opening the boxes, due in part to the heavy layer of dust blanketing the tops, Cole turned to inspect the shelves. Only to find…yep, more dusty dishware. The obvious ghost stood with a groan of frustration – that went unnoticed, due to a simultaneous groan emitted from the trainer in the room over – before slowly hobbling off towards the kitchen.

The apparition was gone by the time Cole turned back around the corner, disappointed with his discoveries…or, rather, his lack thereof. Grumbling under his breath as he entered the main hall once more, he wandered off to look for his friends.

“What kind of haunted house doesn’t even have any _ghosts_?…”

-

There were…even more books in the east wing, Precia discovered. Chippy-Chop, her beloved Bidoof, waddled along beside her as she moved along the shelves, paying no mind to the various ghost Pokémon skulking about. She had let the Bidoof out to see if it could find anything unusual in the room, but the plump mouse Pokémon didn’t seem to be detecting anything other than an excess of dust with its little nose.

So, the east wing was a bust. At least, for the most part; some of the books _did_ look interesting, but they seemed to be more Lucas’ forte. Or Professor Rowan’s. Anything nonfiction with more than six words in the title had to be sciency enough for him, right? She picked up Chippy-Chop before the normal-type could dig into a hardback on one of the lower shelves, carrying it as she headed over to investigate the west wing.

…this sucked, she decided. This one was even emptier than the east wing! And even messier, too – one overstuffed bookshelf sat in the corner, but the room was dominated by books stacked in haphazard piles. A few boxes sat in the corners, holding what she could only guess were more books. What a _mess_.

Chippy-Chop made a noise then, wiggling out of her arms and scampering off into the book towers. Following as best she could, and outright knocking some books over in the process, she found her companion sniffing delicately at a plate of…food? On the floor? Who leaves a full plate of food on the _floor_? (Why were they eating around all these books??)

It looked like…well, it looked _purple_ , if anything. A purple block. Chippy-Chop nudged the plate curiously as she crouched down to examine it, eventually turning to regard the normal-type. “You think it’s okay to eat?”

Chippy-Chop gave the Bidoof equivalent of a shrug. It ate a lot of weird things, and _it_ was fine. Besides, it knew its trainer was bad at remembering to eat meals. Today was no different, it was pretty sure – she’d bypassed getting breakfast at the Pokémon Center in favor of using the PC there to transfer her Pokédex data to the Professor, then just forgotten about the meal completely. She needed to eat _something_ , at any rate, so why not this? It’d been practically handed to her, after all.

“Hey, Precia, I saw what you meant about that one painting – I think it’s a Gengar?” She’d just picked up the plate when Lucas’ voice diverted her attention, the boy managing to run face-first into a cobweb as he entered. He spluttered briefly, flailing in a futile attempt to get the offending strands off of him. “I– _pfbt_ – don’t know for sure, I d-didn’t really want to stick around in there. T-too, uh, dusty, you know?…hey, what’ve you got there?” (Precia would let him pretend he hadn’t been scared. For now, at least.)

“Um…” Lacking any words to, well, _describe_ the food other than “purple” and “block”, she held it up for him to see instead. Curiosity piqued, he wandered closer, sidestepping the piles she’d disturbed _navigated_ earlier. They stared at it in silence for a moment.

“…is that supposed to be food?” Lucas asked. Precia shrugged. Chippy-Chop nibbled on the boy’s shoes as a belated welcome.

“Well! The kitchen’s empty.” Cole announced loudly, making his entrance. Lucas gave a quiet exclamation in response (“Wh– what were you expecting?!”), but the blonde had zeroed in on the item in Precia’s hand almost immediately. “You found food??”

“I’d hardly call it food…” Lucas muttered, casting a glance back at the plate. “It looks more like one of my little sister’s old building blocks.”

The other boy squatted down next to Precia to see better, giving the food in question an appraising once-over before all but lighting up with an idea. “Hey, there was a list downstairs that mentioned something called gat-too, maybe that’s what this is?”

“Gat–?” Lucas went ahead and sat as well, face scrunching up in confusion as he processed what his friend had said. “ _Gateau_? Gateau is a kind of cake, I don’t think this is–”

“It’s spongy enough to be cake.” Precia cut in, poking at the purple block. Despite its apparent age, it still had a decent amount of give to it. That was a good sign, right? She was going to try it, she decided; cake was cake, after all.

As if sensing her thoughts, Lucas gave a plaintive “Please do not.” Cole, on the other hand, met the idea with enthusiasm. “Hey, no, try it out!”

“Cole, don’t encourage–”

“No no, see, here, Precia – if you try some, I’ll try some too!”

“How– wh– how does that make it any better?!” Lucas sputtered out, trying and failing to wrap his head around his friends’ thought processes. “You don’t know where that’s been!”

The blond huffed at the accusation. “Well _obviously_ it’s been in this room.”

“For a while. Undisturbed.” Precia pointed out.

“Yes, which means it’s _old_ , and as such not fit to be eaten.”

“So? Some foods taste better with age!”

“That’s _wine_ , Cole!”

“Or cheese.”

“Precia, that’s– this is definitely not cheese. And you shouldn’t eat dairy products that’ve been left out of the fridge for a long time, anyway!”

“…well, okay, you make a good point there.” Cole conceded, but didn’t back down. “But we agreed it was cake, right? So we know it’s not dairy, at least.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat!”

“Well, how long does gateau normally keep for, Mr. Smarty-pants?”

“I don’t _know_ – I’m an assistant to a Pokémon Professor, not a chef!”

“So then it could still be within its expiration date!”

“I really doubt it is, but even so, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be stale.”

“Big deal, stale food is still food.”

“Stale food tastes _gross_ , though! At this point, it’ll probably taste like cardboard, or dust, or–”

“Bluk berries.” They both snapped their attention to Precia at the statement. Much to Lucas’ horror, the girl had gone ahead and began eating while the boys had been arguing. “It’s Bluk-flavored.” She reasserted, breaking off a piece and offering it to Chippy-Chop. The normal-type snuffled at it for a moment before nibbling away, finishing off the piece quickly. Not too bad, it decided, curiosity sated.

Cole made a face at the news. “Ehh…in that case, I think I’ll pass. Not a big fan of Bluk, y’know?”

Precia nodded understandingly, wrapping up the rest of the cake with a napkin she’d rummaged out of her bag. Lucas shook his head at his friends’ antics, still a bit grossed out – and to think, these were the other two kids Professor Rowan had deemed fit to give starters to. Times like these made him question the man’s decision.

-

They didn’t linger long at the abandoned mansion after that; there wasn’t much else to do at the place, after all. As they headed back to Eterna City, Cole ran ahead to check on the Honey Tree just across the bridge, earning him annoyed looks from the fishermen for the disturbance. Luckily, they didn’t deem it enough of a problem to yell at him for – no need to cause even _more_ of a ruckus to scare the fish off with, after all.

Precia and Lucas followed their friend, albeit much slower. Still kind of hungry, the former pulled the gateau back out of her bag and munched on it as they crossed the bridge, earning a queasy look from Lucas.

“Wow, you, uh, must really love Bluk berries, huh?” The boy commented, reminding himself to check for Full Heals the next time he was at a Poké-Mart. He was pretty sure he’d seen something about a sale before they’d left that morning…

To his surprise, Precia shook her head. “It’s not Bluk.”

“…what?”

“It’s not Bluk-flavored.” She repeated, taking another bite. “I only said it was so that Cole wouldn’t want any. It tastes like Razz berries.”

Lucas shot her an incredulous look as she polished off the gateau, folding the napkin back up to be cleaned later. Hunger now abated, she jogged the remaining distance over to Cole, the clunky _thump-thumps_ of her boots on the bridge almost earning her a scolding from the fishers. The research assistant could only shake his head again as he picked up the pace, doing his best not to disturb the fishers a third time.

He’d made some _weird_ friends, that was for sure.

_FIN_


End file.
